Traveling through Europe in August? It's a busy, pricey affair—thanks to the summer school break, families flock to various destinations, turning it into a chaotic time to move around. That's why Aaron and I decided to anchor ourselves in Paris during the month, relishing the serene, quieter days devoid of the Parisians. But truth be told, not traveling anywhere for a whole month is a marathon for someone like me, accustomed to wanderlust!
To spice things up, I orchestrated a delightful escape at the beginning of September—a long weekend rendezvous to keep our spirits high amid our city staycation.
Barbizon, a charming town just outside of Paris, caught our attention. Aaron, being a frequent cyclist around Fountainebleau, had heard of its allure before and suggested we venture there together for a long weekend. I was intrigued, especially at the prospect of biking our way there. The bike route spanned 74 km, officially marking my longest biking excursion sans e-bike. While I'm not a dedicated cyclist, my active nature convinced me that I'd muster up enough stamina for the journey.
Yet, here's the catch: there's a particular point during cycling where I hit a wall—my patience dwindles, and I just reach a "done" state. Predicting this threshold is like trying to forecast the weather; it's erratic and varies from trip to trip.
For this one, it happened at about the 4 hour mark, 30 minutes away from the finish. I did not wear proper bike shorts with butt pads nor did I have bike gloves (at least Aaron was able to lend me some by the end), and it was also the hottest/sunniest weekend of the year. By the end of it I was sore, hot, sunburned, and cursing. But we made it! We stopped once each hour for either a bite of food or a water break with shade, to keep up my energy and spirits. Overall it wasn't so bad and I will like to do it again next year. Here is a Strava link that shows our ride activity, some stunning pictures along the way, and the stats. There are some restaurants, boulangeries, and supermarchés to stop at along the way. You can make it as quick or as slow as you want it, really.
Our bike excursion mainly unfolded along roads, and for the most part, the cars played nice, granting us ample space as they zoomed past, albeit with a few minor exceptions. The drivers here in France seem far more attuned to cyclists—a stark contrast to my experiences pedaling through the roads of LA. After enduring those nerve-wracking rides in Los Angeles, I've conclusively concluded that biking on any road in France feels safe in comparison.
Once we arrived, we checked into our oversized airbnb house. The house had a swimming pool, bbq pit, 3 bedroom, 3 baths, a gym and a divine kitchen. It was much more space than what Aaron and I needed, but since this was our summer vacation, I decided to splurge and make it feel special. I planned for us to cook all of our dinners on the bbq (coming from Paris, we REALLY miss having a bbq). It did not disappoint and the house also was equipped with AC in every room, which we turned on immediately.
Walking around Barbizon had kind of a Santa Barbara feel. It's smaller than SB and not on water, but it had similar quaint vibes of art and money + French. We went into town a few times to get our own food to cook with and snack on for the house (they have a good local Butcher and convenience store with necessities), we ate breakfast at a Tabac one day and had lunch at a tasty vegan place. The two other exciting things we did while we were here was to visit Chateau de Vaux-le-Vicomte in the evening and take a hike in the Fontainebleau Forest. I'll write a separate post about that to give more detail and link to our bike route we took from our Barbizon house to the Chateau. But seriously, WOW! They light up the Chateau with thousands of candles every Saturday in the summer months and I can't recommend this more.
After our trip was over, we took a train back to Paris. I knew I didn't want to do the 74 km ride twice and Aaron had to get back to work. This ride to the train station only took us about 30 minutes (and it was raining on the last day so thankfully we did NOT ride back to Paris). We left from the Melun station and since it was a TER train, we simply bought a ticket at the train station and wheeled our bikes on the train. TER trains allow bikes (even without bike bag) and there is usually a car that has bike hooks you can hang your bikes on. The train was a bit crowded so we ended up standing with our bikes for the ride, but it only took about 30 minutes and dropped us off at Gare de Lyon, which is close to our apartment.
My conclusion is that the Fontainebleau Forest is fun for hiking around, Barbizon is an adorable little town, the trip to Chateau de Vaux-le-Vicomte is absolutely worth it, and having a house with a pool/BBQ on hot summer days was perfect! I look forward to doing this same trip again, honestly.
Biking the 74 km to Barbizon was overall a fun experience for me (I slowed Aaron way down but he said he still enjoyed it) and then taking the train back was definitely the right call. You could even take the train there if you don't want to ride from Paris, but I would recommend having a bike while you're there, so taking the TER with your bike is a great option. If you decide to not take a bike, the hosue we stayed at actually had a couple bikes we could use and there are taxi options from the train stations into Barbizon. I was pleasantly surprised how available the taxis were in Melun, even though we never used them.
A note from Aaron on the route -
There are a few different ways to get to Barbizon. You essentially take two thirds of any route for Paris to Fontainebleau. While there are shorter routes then what we took, we opted for more bike path and scenery along the Marne vs cutting straight south to get out of the city. Outside of Paris you will hit Forêt Domaniale de Sénart. There are a few options here as well, you can take the paved route we took or if you don’t mind a long stretch of gravel you can take the Allée Royale. If its dry and your comfortable on gravel you can really rip. If its wet, it's super greasy and slightly terrifying. You can then keep straight south to hit Barbizon. If you are looking for extra milage I would recommend keeping on the east side of the river and going down to Fontainebleau and cutting back north from there through Forêt de Fontainebleau. Here is the link to the Strava route and GPX.
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